Celebrating the Winners of the 2026 SEGD Global Design Awards
31 award-winning projects from around the world demonstrate the extraordinary power of experiential design to connect people, tell meaningful stories, and shape a better future.
The results are in! SEGD is proud to announce the winners of the 2026 SEGD Global Design Awards, revealed on Friday, October 23, during the 2026 SEGD Conference Experience in Kansas City, Missouri, presented by DCL.
From immersive cultural experiences and transformative public spaces to innovative wayfinding systems and digital environments, this year’s winning projects demonstrate the remarkable creativity, ambition, and impact of the global experiential design community.
The program’s highest honor, Best of Show, went to the Netherlands Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, designed by Tellart, which also received an Honor Award and the Life-Centered Design Award for its innovative approach to immersive storytelling, collective participation, and environmental stewardship.
Since 1987, the SEGD Global Design Awards have celebrated the world’s most exceptional experiential design projects, recognizing work that brings together design, architecture, technology, and storytelling to create meaningful connections between people and place.
This year, SEGD received 272 entries from 156 firms, including 71 submissions from 17 countries outside the United States and 10 student projects. The jury selected 31 winning projects across seven categories, awarding 11 Honor Awards and 20 Merit Awards.
“For nearly four decades, the SEGD Global Design Awards have set the standard for excellence in experiential design,” said SEGD CEO Cybelle Jones. “Together, these awards showcase the depth and diversity of our global experiential design community, and its power to inspire, inform, and transform.”
The 2026 SEGD Global Design Awards Jury was chaired by Abigail Honor, Co-Founder of Lorem Ipsum, who reflected on the selection process:
It was an incredible experience to review work from every corner of the globe, and what struck all of us wasn't just how impressive these spaces look; it's how they make people feel the moment they step inside them. That's the bar we held every entry to, and now, we get to celebrate the work that cleared it.”
Meet the 2026 Top Award Winners
Best of Show and Life-Centered Design Award: Netherlands Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka
Design Firm: Tellart
Client: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands; Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO)
Location: Osaka, Japan
Awards: Best of Show, Honor Award, Life-Centered Design Award
How do you make a global challenge like water conservation feel personal, tangible, and hopeful?
The Netherlands Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka invites visitors into an immersive experience exploring the Netherlands’ relationship with water, transforming centuries of innovation into a participatory story about our shared future.
At the heart of the experience is a glowing interactive orb that visitors carry through the pavilion, activating installations and becoming part of the unfolding narrative. Interactive environments, 360-degree media, and generative artwork create moments of discovery and connection, encouraging visitors to reflect on the role they can play in shaping a more sustainable world.
The jury praised the project’s seamless integration of disciplines and its ability to create an emotionally resonant experience.
Interactivity rarely inspires such human, warm, and touching feelings as holding these orbs of light and energy… Congratulations on a remarkably fluid blend of so many disciplines into an unforgettable experience.”
Sylvia Harris Award: Sculpting History at the Valentine Studio
Design Firm: Studio Joseph
Client: The Valentine
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Awards: Sylvia Harris Award, Merit Award
The Sylvia Harris Award recognizes projects that advance accessibility, clarity, and communication in the public realm, honoring the legacy of pioneering designer and SEGD Fellow Sylvia Harris.
This year’s recipient, Sculpting History at the Valentine Studio: Art, Power, and the “Lost Cause” American Myth, transforms sculptor Edward Valentine’s former studio into a space to examine the relationship between art, power, and public memory.
Developed through extensive community engagement, the exhibition brings together historical interpretation, media, and opportunities for dialogue to confront the legacy of Lost Cause mythology. The result is a thoughtful, powerful experience that demonstrates how design can encourage reflection and meaningful civic conversation.
The project perfectly demonstrated the importance of design meeting the cultural landscape of today, while bringing an incredibly thoughtful experience to life.”
Explore All 31 Winning Projects
Branded Environments
Golden State Warriors Practice Facility — Honor Award, Populous; Client: Golden State Valkyries; Location: Oakland and San Francisco, California.
The Chuan Malt Whisky Distillery: Where East Meets West in Sublime Harmony — Honor Award, BRC Imagination Arts; Client: Pernod Ricard Asia; Location: Emeishan, China.
Center of the Running Universe — Merit Award, NBBJ; Client: Brooks Running, Inc.; Location: Seattle, Washington.
Crusoe — Merit Award, Gensler; Client: Crusoe; Location: Denver, Colorado.
Harbourside — Merit Award; Sustainability Impact Recognition, Frost Collective; Client: Mirvac; Location: Sydney, Australia.
SCADstory Atlanta — Merit Award, BRC Imagination Arts; Client: Savannah College of Art and Design; Location: Atlanta, Georgia.
Digital Experiences
Netherlands Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka — Best of Show; Honor Award; Life-Centered Design Award, Tellart; Clients: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands, and Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO); Location: Osaka, Japan.
Hoover Dam Visitor Center — Honor Award, Northern Light Productions; Client: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Location: Boulder City, Nevada.
Atlantis, The Palm — The Lost Chambers Aquarium: Depths of Discovery — Merit Award, AVI-SPL; Client: Atlantis, The Palm; Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Bespoke Kinetic & Interactive Installations, Experience Center — Merit Award, Leva; Client: Confidential; Location: United States.
Exhibition
Sculpting History at the Valentine Studio: Art, Power, and the “Lost Cause” American Myth — Sylvia Harris Award; Merit Award, Studio Joseph; Client: The Valentine; Location: Richmond, Virginia.
Folger Shakespeare Library Museum Exhibition Gallery and First Folio Engagement — Honor Award, Studio Joseph; Client: Folger Shakespeare Library; Location: Washington, D.C.
Hunterian Museum — Honor Award, Casson Mann; Client: Royal College of Surgeons; Location: London, England.
Fallout: Atoms for War & Peace — Merit Award, Kudos Design Collaboratory and KASA Collective; Client: Poster House; Location: New York, New York.
Family Discovery Center — Merit Award, Storyline Studio; Client: First Americans Museum; Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Grand Egyptian Museum — Tutankhamun Gallery — Merit Award, ATELIER BRÜCKNER; Client: Ministry of Antiquities; Location: Giza, Egypt.
Lost Shtetl Museum — Merit Award, Ralph Appelbaum Associates; Client: Lost Shtetl — Museum of Šeduva Jewish History; Location: Šeduva, Lithuania.
The Great Void: The Holocaust in Liepāja — Merit Award, Design Studio H2E; Client: The Uniting Foundation and Liepāja Museum; Location: Liepāja, Latvia.
Worcester Art Museum Arms and Armor Galleries — Merit Award, TSKP x IKD; Client: Worcester Art Museum; Location: Worcester, Massachusetts.
12th SITE Santa Fe International: Once Within a Time — Merit Award, A Practice for Everyday Life; Client: SITE Santa Fe; Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Placemaking
Harbourfront Centre Community Square — Honor Award; Sustainability Impact Recognition, MJMA Architecture & Design; Client: Harbourfront Centre; Location: Toronto, Canada.
La Nube STEAM Discovery Center — Honor Award, RSM Design; Client: El Paso Community Foundation; Location: El Paso, Texas.
Fort Churchill State Historic Park — Merit Award; Sustainability Impact Recognition, Ralph Appelbaum Associates; Client: Nevada Division of State Parks; Location: Silver Springs, Nevada.
Sydney Children’s Hospital Placemaking & Environmental Graphics — Merit Award, Frost Collective; Client: Sydney Children’s Hospital; Location: Sydney, Australia.
Public Installation
A Data Love Letter to the Subway — Honor Award, Pentagram; Client: MTA Arts & Design; Location: New York, New York.
Wind-Carried Campus Culture — Merit Award; Sustainability Impact Recognition, Neili Design Lab; Client: Shanghai Jiulong Model Middle School; Location: Shanghai, China.
Strategy / Research / Planning
Masar Destination: Shaping Makkah’s Future Through Connectivity and Culture — Honor Award, Endpoint; Client: Umm Al Qura for Development & Construction; Location: Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Air Play — Merit Award, Georgia Tech School of Industrial Design; Clients: Georgia Institute of Technology and Children’s Museum of Atlanta; Location: Atlanta, Georgia.
Cincinnati Metro Signage and Wayfinding System: From Pole to Place — Merit Award, eXperiential Design Lab (XDL), University of Cincinnati; Client: Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), Cincinnati Metro; Location: Cincinnati, Ohio.
Wayfinding
The LEGO Group’s Boston Hub — Honor Award, Acrylicize; Client: The LEGO Group; Location: Boston, Massachusetts.
Driscoll Children’s Wayfinding System — Merit Award, FORMATION; Client: Driscoll Children’s Hospital; Location: Rio Grande Valley, Texas.
Advancing Sustainability Through Design
Introduced in 2025, SEGD’s Sustainability Impact Recognition celebrates projects that make meaningful contributions to sustainability through three key areas: process, narrative, and place. This year’s recognized projects demonstrate how experiential design can advance environmental stewardship, strengthen communities, and create lasting positive impact.
The Life-Centered Design Award, presented with the support of MOSS and SEGD’s Sustainability Committee, recognizes exceptional leadership in advancing environmental stewardship, equity, and human well-being. This year’s recipient, Netherlands Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka by Tellart, also received the program’s highest honor, Best of Show.
Thank You to Our 2026 Global Design Awards Sponsors
The 2026 SEGD Global Design Awards are proudly presented by DCL, with the generous support of our Category Sponsors: CREO Industrial Arts (Branded Environments), Mad Systems (Digital Experiences), Eos Lightmedia (Exhibition), S+D Corp (Placemaking), Dimensional Innovations (Public Installation), Studio Loutsis (Strategy / Research / Planning), SignAgent (Wayfinding), and MOSS (Sustainability and Life-Centered Design).
Thank you to our incredible partners for helping us recognize and celebrate excellence across the global experiential design community!
Discover the Winning Work
Every winning project represents a story worth exploring. Discover the ideas, design processes, and creative teams behind the 2026 SEGD Global Design Awards winners, including project photography and jury commentary.
Explore the 2026 Global Design Awards Winners
Inspired by this year’s winners? Submissions for the 2027 SEGD Global Design Awards open December 15, 2026. We can’t wait to see what our community creates next.
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